Standard terms of business

Billing & payment

Ashworth Associates issue invoices electronically: payment terms are fourteen days from the date of invoice by BACS or Cheque. Ashworth Associates can accept payment directly in Sterling only. The appropriate bank account details will be printed on our electronic invoice.

Ashworth Associates reserves the right to charge interest on all overdue debts at the rate of 5% per month or part of a month.

Proposals

Proposals remain valid for 28 days from the date of issue unless otherwise stated.

Standard Rates

Any work instructions received from a client without normal proposal will be charged at our standard rate of £50 per hour. For urgent work completed during evenings and weekends, a surcharge of £20 per hour will be added.

Notices

Any notices to be given to the client at their head office and to Ashworth Associates at their registered office. These terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the England and the Isle of Man. Parties hereby submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English and Isle of Man Courts.

Project variation notices

Where variations to an agreed programme of work is specified by the client, and these variations are agreed to be likely to result in an increase in the chargeable hours, costs or expenses, a variation notice setting out the nature of the variation and the estimated adjustment to the budget, will be issued. Once issued, such a variation notice must be signed as agreed by the client prior to Ashworth Associates personnel being required to perform work resulting from the variation notice. Any work undertaken under a variation notice will be billed monthly in arrears.

Direct costs and expenses

Unless specifically included in the proposal, expenses are payable in addition to the proposed fee. Expenses will be agreed in advance within an approved budget and billed, at cost, monthly in arrears. A full mileage and expenses schedule will be provided with the monthly invoice.

Mileage: £0.50 per mile

Accommodation outside Tyne and Wear but not within M25 (per person per day): £75

Sustenance overnight (per person per day if overnight stay is required): £35

Accommodation outside Tyne and Wear and within M25 (per person per night): £95

International accommodation: At cost

Printing / postage / copying / other disbursements: At cost

Trains / taxis / flights (economy class): At cost

Subcontractors

Where appropriate for the effective delivery of the work, Ashworth Associates may engage additional staff or subcontract aspects of the service. Any change to these arrangements will be discussed and agreed with the client in advance. It is unlikely that we will need to use any third-party consultants.

From time to time there may be a requirement for Ashworth Associates to procure services or equipment outside the scope of its normal operations (for example: trade mark attorneys). This will be carried out against a specification agreed with the client. The contract for the chosen services or equipment and responsibility for the quality of the delivered services or equipment will be directly with the client unless otherwise stated.

Publicity

The client allows use of their name and a description of the work undertaken in publicity material, press releases, websites and other media produced from time to time by Ashworth Associates. Use of detailed descriptions of the work will be subject to acceptance by the client and bound by the confidentiality agreement.

Warranty

Bugs will be fixed ‘free of charge’ for a period of six months from date of launch.

Additonal Works

Should a client instruct Ashworth Associates to provide additional work relating to a project (such as a redesign and/or adjustments to database structure etc.) then the additional works are considered to be an extension of the previous project, and as such if payment is not received for additional works, then Ashworth Associates will assume ownership of the previous project until full payment has been received. Verbal agreements are enforced by voice logging equipment (see 'Call Recording' below).

Self hosting

Ashworth Associates can provide exceptional hosting arrangements. This is our preference however if you choose to self-host, the following notes apply:

They must be running php5 and Mysql5 as these are the development platform versions we currently employ

It is preferable servers are Unix/Linux based running Apache server

For reasons of both performance and security, some sites are not viable using standard ‘shared’ hosting packages

We will need access to the server control panel and have full access to the DNS and name-server records plus SSH and FTP access. These details must be provided well in advance of any proposed launch date

Our sites are very lean and many of our clients have found that they receive more traffic with the new design. It is also your responsibility to ensure the server is adequate to handle the load the proposed website will place on it, plus make appropriate backups. If you decide to use your own servers then have to move them to another host, you will be charged at our standard daily rate for the move.

Should you wish to release your site from our servers, the client must own the copyright for the work, transfer of work will incur a £100 adminstration fee.

Call Recording

We accept orders from existing clients by telephone, and/or email without a formal purchase order. We verify any orders using remote call recording equipment. By placing an order with Ashworth Associates, you agree to these terms and conditions, and in doing so you agree that any telephone calls between yourself and Ashworth Associates may be recorded for the purpose of fact verification.

Termination

In the event of either party being in material or fundamental breach of any of the terms and conditions of business the other may forthwith terminate the contract if the breach is incapable of remedy, or if it is capable of remedy the aggrieved party shall serve on the other seven days notice requiring such a breach to be remedied and, if such a breach is not remedied within the seven day period the contract shall automatically terminate.

In the case of dispute both parties agreed to abide by the decision reached by an independent mediator. The cost of mediation will be borne by the party against whom the judgement is made, or shared if no or equal fault is found.

Payment for any work is still due up to and including the day that the breach is notified.

Confidentiality

Ashworth Associates hereby agree to treat as secret and confidential and not at any time for any reason to disclose or permit to be disclosed to any person or otherwise make use of or permit to be made use of any unpublished information relation to the client’s technology or other know-how business plans or finances or any such information relating to any subsidiary, supplier, customer or client of the client and to deliver up to the client all working papers, computer discs and tapes or other material and copies provided to or prepared by us or our employees should the current discussions terminate. Ashworth Associates further agree to procure that our employees observe the terms of this clause.